DQCI CHANNEL SATISFACTION SURVEY - 2003: Time To Repair After-Sales Service

Product quality, brand image and after-sales support are the top three attributes that partners feel are most critical while doing business with vendors. This was revealed by the findings of fourth annual DQCI Channel Satisfaction Survey-2003. While vendors managed to satisfy partners with product quality and brand image, there is a dire need for improvement in after-sales support. Reducing turnaround time emerged as another significant aspect that vendors need to work on.

The survey that most vendors wait year-long to lay their hands on is finally out. The good news is that partners are happy with product quality and brand image, which are the most important criteria while doing business with a vendor. 

But, the most serious revelation of this survey is that the third-most important criterion that channels have rated as important -- after-sales service -- needs to be firmed up. Coupled to this is the fact that vendors are lacking in meeting promised turnaround time.

The fourth DQCI Channel Satisfaction Survey (CSS) - 2003 conducted by IDC India covered 1,002 partners across all types of channel categories. Key distributors, resellers, retailers, network integrators, systems integrators, corporate resellers and assemblers, were all covered in this survey.

The survey was undertaken with a wide geographic coverage. Cities that were covered in the survey are Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Chandigarh and
Lucknow. 

The results of the survey was based on 21 micro attributes that nearly covered every parameter required in the building of a company’s equity through channel loyalty.
Vendors have to increasingly look at quality, satisfaction and loyalty as keys for achieving market leadership. Understanding what drives these critical elements, how they are linked and how they contribute to a company's overall equity is fundamental to success. The 21 micro attributes were further evaluated to arrive at seven macro attributes: 

1. Product quality
2. Brand image
3. After-sales support
4. Marketing support
5. Commercial terms
6. Relationship management and
7. Online support

Based on the importance and performance of these attributes, the survey arrived at four tactical resource allocations which vendors need to 'Improve, Leverage, Watch and Maintain'.

The DQCI CSS findings say that ‘Technology leadership’, ‘Strong brand positioning’ and ‘Diversity of product range' is given high importance by the channel. These are some of the areas which vendors should always leverage on.

‘Product pricing’ and ‘Point-of-sales material’ are the two areas where most vendors have maintained high performance. But considering the fact that these are not very important areas for partners, vendors should try and maintain it at the present level.

‘Online support’, and ‘Training/certification’ are two areas which partners feel to be of low importance, but at the same time have expressed dissatisfaction. But vendors should remember that as the industry’s infrastructure improves, these parameters will become an important factor for growth. Vendors need to keep a watch on these areas.

The most important finding is that vendors should improve on their ability to provide satisfactory repair and replacement services with reduced turnaround time. Obviously, this is a serious issue that vendors should take up immediately. 

After-sales service, time and again, has proved to be one of the most important criteria which decides the fate of any vendor in the long run. The CSS findings say that vendors have failed miserably in providing the right after-sales support. Very often, it is the long delay in solving repair and replacement problem. Vendors do required time to authenticate the claim for repair or replacement during warranty. But, in world flooded with CRM and ERP offering, it is not difficult for any vendor to streamline handling after-sales issues.

Call it a gem of information, which vendors can use, the survey also points out that partners are dissatisfied with ‘Transparency in commercial terms and policies’, ‘Richness of online resources offered’, ‘Profit margins’, ‘Promptness of online resources’ and ‘Reward systems’.

If the channel feels that vendors are not transparent enough in their commercial terms and policies, vendors should remember that they have set the ground for losing valuable partners.
Absence of transparency in commercial terms could lead to unsatisfied and disgruntled partners, which eventually will result in changing of brand loyalty. So it is imperative for vendors to keep partners tactically happy in all sensitive areas. 

DQCI Most Preferred Vendors

The methodology for arriving at the best vendor for each category does not have any dependence on the calculation of satisfaction scores of vendors. A simple voting was conducted to identify the best vendor.

For each product within a category, respondents were asked to name the best vendor and substantiate it by choosing the strongest reason from a list of five generic reasons. 

For arriving at the best hardware/software vendor, the vendor bagging the number one position for the maximum number of products within the category was chosen.
Below, is the product-wise analysis of the survey mentioning the preferred vendor in different product categories. 

Three RED lines with a higher descent indicate that the SATISFACTION level for these parameters is very low compared to the high IMPORTANCE rating that has been given to them. Hence these are the most critical micro attributes that vendors should improve on.

Branded Desktop PCs: HP topped partner preference, with IBM as a distant runner-up. 

Laptops: HP dislodged IBM’s top position in 2002 to the leadership position. IBM was the second runner-up.

Servers: In all the three segments -- PC, mid-range servers and high-end servers -- HP held the top position, with IBM following close.

Enterprise Storage Solutions: Once again, HP took the lead with IBM way behind. 

Inkjet Printers: HP dominated yet again, while Canon came a distant second, ousting Epson from the list. 

Laser Printers: Though HP dominated this space, Samsung was, at second spot, was a tough competitor with its aggressive marketing campaigns. 

Impact Printers: TVSE topped the chart with WeP as a close runner-up.

Multi-Function Devices: HP lead with virtually no competition except Canon, which had a small preference.

Monitors: Samsung was way ahead of LG as the preferred vendor.

Scanners: HP emerged the clear leader, followed by Umax on the second spot.

Keyboards: Samsung got the top honors, followed by Logitech, displacing TVSE which held this position last year.

Mice: Logitech retained its leadership position with Samsung at the second spot. 

Speakers: Mercury continued its domination, with Creative coming up second. 

Hard Disk Drive: Samsung with its three-year warranty policy on its hard dsk drives was the leader. Seagate, though at the second spot, was not too far.

Optical Disk Drives: Partners preferred Samsung, while LG was a distant runner-up.

Motherboards: Intel scored for its quality and brand image. Mercury came in second.

CPUs: Intel was on top, while AMD was miles away.

Sound Cards: Creative emerged as the most preferred vendor, followed by
Intex.

Graphics Card: Asus take the top spot, followed by Creative.

Modems/NIC: D-Link emerges as the most preferred vendor for NIC and hubs, followed by Dax.

Memory Modules: Hynix was the most preferred vendor, followed by Simmtronics at a wide gap.

TOP 10 AREAS WITH HIGHER DISSATISFACTION Reward systems Overall effectiveness of online support Training and certification programmes for channel partners Promptness of services through online resources Profit margins Richness of online resources offered Transparency in commercial terms and policies Turnaround time of aftersales service Consistency & effectiveness of communication with partners Innovativeness of market development programmes

UPS/CVTs: In branded players, APC continued to lead, followed by Microtek. 

Wireless LAN Equipment: D-Link took the preference, which D-Link followed.

Cable and Cabling Accessories: D-Link emerged as the most preferred vendor. AMP got a few votes.

IP Telephony Equipment: Cisco’s brand image and expertise gave it the top slot. D-Link was a close second.

Routers/Switches: In this high-end networking category, Cisco reigned, though it faced close competition was D-Link.

Digi Cam/Web-Cameras:Logitech was the leading choice, followed by Kodak as a distant runner-up.



OS/Office Suites: Microsoft was the only serious choice, despite the hype about Linux.



Security Software: Symantec was the best vendor in this category. There was no second choice.

Database Software: Here Microsoft SQL displaced Oracle as the most preferred vendor.

Storage Software: Veritas was the chosen one for its storage management software expertise.

Networking Software: Novell is still the channel's best bet for networking software, but Windows NT was not very far.

Accounting Packages: Tally continued to be the most preferred accounting package. Another lesser-known package, called Fact, also garnered a few votes for the second spot.

NELSON JOHNY

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

IDC India used the IT-Channels Satisfaction Measurement Model (ICSM) to arrive at the results. The model lends more accuracy to satisfaction measurement by factoring in the importance that respondents attach to each criterion used for evaluation.

The entire survey was undertaken in three distinct stages. 

Stage I: Qualitative pilot stage

Stage II: Fieldwork

Stage III: Analysis and interpretation

Stage I

The most important stage in the entire survey and involved qualitative discussions with sample resellers.

These discussions with the different people in partner organizations helped in assessing the channel requirements, how they are met in today’s scenario and what are their latent expectations. 

This exercise helped in evolving the model, the generic set of micro and macro attributes that could be used for measurement of satisfaction across product and channel categories.

The sampling, based on channel type, was also completed in this stage.

Stage II

In this stage, a field-briefing session was organized where the entire questionnaire was discussed and mock interviews were arranged. A proper coverage plan was also made, based on the location of each responding customer.

Personal interviews were carried out face-to-face with eligible respondents. For an unbiased evaluation of performance, the name of DQCI was revealed to the investigators.

Stage III

The questionnaires, after proper scrutiny, was entered into database format. The database was cross-checked for consistency and quality. The database after this stage, was analyzed in relevant software to get the output.

After analysis of the output tables, the data was studied and interpreted to deliver answers to the questions set as objectives.